New report calls for efforts to tackle excessive treatment of patients

More needs to be done by NHS medical professionals to ensure that valuable resources are not wasted by the overtreatment of patients.

The Academy of Medical Royal Colleges has published a report in the British Medical Journal calling for the UK to adopt a US initiative called Choosing Wisely, aimed at getting doctors to stop using interventions that are not supported by evidence, free from harm or truly necessary, including duplicated tests or procedures.

To accomplish this, doctors would need to provide patients with resources that increase their understanding about potential harm of interventions, as well as helping them accept that doing nothing can often be the best approach.

Patients should thus be encouraged to ask about the necessity of certain procedures, while medical professionals should be trained to evaluate risk more effectively. Meanwhile, commissioners could consider a different payment incentive for doctors and hospitals.

The report stated: "Doctors have an ethical responsibility to reduce this wasted use of clinical resource because, in a healthcare system with finite resources, one doctor's waste is another patient's delay."